A capsule comprising a connection of a body and a cap is filled with a filling material serving as an ingredient in the form of powder, granule, liquid, etc. and sealed, whereby a capsule is formed. In the production of this kind of capsule medicine, a capsule sealing apparatus for sealing the body and the cap is used to ensure secure connection between the body and the cap, to prevent malicious opening and, in the case of a liquid filling material in particular, to prevent the ingredient from leaking from the capsule. In addition, the oxidation stability and deodorization effect of a filling material can be enhanced by sealing the capsule using the capsule sealing apparatus. Furthermore, an identification function can be enhanced further by coloring a sealing material. Since the capsule sealing processing is very important processing as described above, various capsule sealing apparatuses have been developed. FIG. 21 is a side view showing the entire configuration of the capsule sealing apparatus disclosed in the Official Gazette of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. Hei 2-946 applied by the applicant of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 21, the conventional capsule sealing apparatus comprises a capsule feeding means provided with a hopper 1 for randomly accommodating a plurality of capsules filled with a filling material, a feed drum 2, etc., a capsule orienting means provided with a rectifier roller 3, a guide plate 4, a transfer roller 5, a guide plate 6, etc., a transfer means provided with slats 7, a bottom plate 8, etc., a sealing means provided with a sealing roller 11, a sealing roller motor 12, a sealing liquid bath 13, etc., and a drying means provided with a blast duct 15, a blower 16, etc.
The feed drum 2 is disposed at the capsule discharge port of the hopper 1 for accommodating filled capsules. The feed drum 2 is configured so that the filled capsules randomly accommodated in the hopper 1 can be held sequentially in an unoriented state.
The filled capsules held in the feed drum 2 are sequentially fed to the capsule orienting means comprising the rectifier roller 3, the transfer roller 5, etc., and the filled capsules are arranged in the same direction. Hence, at the lower portion of the transfer roller 5 serving as the last stage of the capsule orienting means, the postures of the filled capsules are arranged in the same direction. In other words, at the delivery position from the transfer roller 5 to the transfer means, all the filled capsules are transferred while their bodies and caps are disposed in the same direction.
In the transfer means to which the filled capsules have been delivered, the filled capsules are transferred in the horizontal direction by the slats 7 being connected endlessly. The bottom plate 8 is provided below the slats 7 to support, from below, the filled capsules being transferred.
In the transfer means, the sealing means is provided on the downstream side from the position wherein the filled capsules are delivered. In the sealing means, the sealing roller 11, the lower portion of which is dipped in a sealing liquid inside the sealing liquid bath 13, makes contact with the connection portion of the cap and body of the filled capsule being transferred. Hence, the sealing liquid attached to the external circumferential face of the sealing roller 11 is applied to the connection portion of the filled capsule, and a band seal is formed.
In the conventional capsule sealing apparatus, the drying means is provided on the downstream side from the installation position of the sealing means. The drying means comprises the blast duct 15 provided on the lower face of the bottom plate 8 and the blower 16 for feeding air into the blast duct 15. The bottom plate 8 is provided with a plurality of air ports through which air is discharged to the filled capsules moving above the bottom plate 8 to dry the filled capsules.
After the band seal is formed at the connection portion of the filled capsule as described above, the filled capsule is transferred to the drying means and forcibly dried in the blast duct 15 by the air discharged from the blower 16.
Since the filled capsules filled with the filling material are fed randomly as described above, the conventional capsule sealing apparatus is provided with the capsule orienting means for orienting the filled capsules in one direction. As a result, the conventional capsule sealing apparatus has a problem of being large in the size of the apparatus. In addition, filling processing for filling empty capsules with the filling material is carried out by a capsule filling apparatus as preprocessing being carried out before capsule sealing. Then, the filled capsules having been subjected to the filling processing are transferred to the above-mentioned capsule sealing apparatus serving as another production line, and then the sealing processing is carried out. Hence, in the case of a liquid filling material in particular, there is a danger of leakage while the filled capsules not yet sealed are stored or transferred between the production lines, thereby lowering productivity.
By solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is intended to provide a compact capsule filling-sealing apparatus capable of sequentially carrying out sealing processing after filling processing on the same production line without requiring unnecessary storage and transfer after the filling processing for capsules.